At Friends of the Cancer Centre, our supporters mean everything to us. Without your support we would not be able to provide funding to support cancer services that make a real and meaningful difference to thousands of cancer patients and their families in Northern Ireland each year.
Friends of the Cancer Centre (“we”) promises to respect any personal data you share with us and keep it safe. This privacy policy sets out how we collect and use the information you give us. If you have any questions please feel to free to get in touch with us by calling 028 9069 9393 or email [email protected]
Your privacy is protected by law, which says that we can use your personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. The reasons Friends of the Cancer Centre may use your personal information are:
*A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, but this must not unfairly go against your rights or freedoms. Friends of the Cancer Centre employs the lawful basis of ‘legitimate interest’ when the charity believes that the individual would reasonably expect us to contact them and send marketing communications. This may be because you have enquired about the work of the Friends of the Cancer Centre, made a donation to Friends of the Cancer Centre in the past or attended an event in support of the charity.
If we rely on our legitimate interest we will tell you what that is.
Below is a list of the ways that we use your personal information. This is also where we tell you what our legitimate interests are:
What We use your personal information for | Our reason(s) for processing | Our legitimate interest (where applicable) |
To manage our relationship with you To keep you updated about our work by sending you our newsletter To send you information about our fundraising activities To keep you updated on additional ways you can support Friends of the Cancer Centre | For administrative purposes Fulfilling contracts Our legal duty Our legitimate interests Your Consent | Keeping our records up to date Working out which of our activities may interest you and telling you about them Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties |
To run our charity in an efficient and proper way. This includes managing our financial position, business capability, planning, communications, corporate governance and audit | Our legal duty Our legitimate interests | Complying with regulations that apply to us Being efficient about how we fulfill our legal and contractual duties |
For a more detailed breakdown, see section 4.
Friends of the Cancer Centre is committed to making a difference to the lives of people affected by cancer in Northern Ireland by enhancing the care and support they receive at every stage of their cancer journey.
To do this we need to collect and process certain personal data, such as information needed when you make a donation. Your data also allows us to develop a better understanding of our supporters, allowing us to fundraise more efficiently and effectively in order to support those people who need it most.
If we collect sensitive personal data from you, we will seek to only do so with your consent. Friends of the Cancer Centre fully respects any personal information you share with us and we promise to keep it safe. We will never sell your data and we will safeguard your personal information in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the Data Protection Act 2018, and any subsequent, enacting or replacement legislation.
In the sections below, you can learn what information we gather from you, how we process it, hold it, as well as how we communicate with you. If you wish to stop hearing from us at any time, we will respect that so you’ll also find out how you can stop any further communication from us at any time.
Personal information is information that can be used to identify you, tell us about you and help us understand your relationship with us. For example, if you make a donation, volunteer with us, register to fundraise or sign up for an event, Friends of the Cancer Centre may, with your full knowledge and consent, collect the following information:
The information we collect is gathered in the following ways:
When you give it to us DIRECTLY by
When you give it to us INDIRECTLY
Every donation we receive matters to Friends of the Cancer Centre and your information is also really important to us as it allows us to carry out a number of actions that ensure your support reaches those who need it most through our work.
Here are some of the ways we use your information to support our work:
Donations – when you make a donation we will use your information to:
Fundraising events – if you register to take part in a Friends of the Cancer Centre event (by phone, registration form or online) or choose to hold your own event to raise money for the charity we will use your information to:
Providing you with products – if you order something from the charity, such as our merchandise, we will use your information to:
If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something, pay online or over the phone, or register for one of our events, we will need to collect information to process this payment. We will ensure that this is done securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
We do not store your credit or debit card details at all. Following the completion of your transaction all card details and validation codes are securely destroyed once the payment or donation has been processed. Most transactions are undertaken without a person ever seeing your credit card details and only those staff authorised to process payments will be able to see your card details.
We also ask that you never email your credit or debit card details to us to ensure your information is not compromised in any way. If we receive an email containing any credit or debit card details, it will be immediately deleted, no payment will be taken and you will be notified about this. We will only ever ask you to make a payment to us in person or over the phone to help keep your details secure.
Payments via PayPal
If you make a payment to the charity via PayPal we will also be able to collect certain information in order to process your action. For example, if you pay for an event via our website using PayPal, we will receive details of your name, address and other contact information from PayPal to confirm your payment has been received. If necessary, we may also use this information to contact you regarding any additional support or materials you need.
If you provide information to a website to which we link, we are not responsible for its protection and privacy. For further information on the details PayPal collects from you when using its website please visit
www.paypal.com/ie/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
Donations via JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving
If you set up a fundraising page on JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving we will be notified to make us aware that you are raising funds for the charity. Just Giving and/or Virgin Money Giving will also send us your name and email address. In order to support your fundraising efforts, we will contact you using these details to offer advice, support or provide you with materials as needed. We do not collect any information from your family, friends and supporters who make a donation through your page.
If you provide information to a website to which we link, we are not responsible for its protection and privacy. For further information on the details JustGiving may collect from you when using its website please visit www.justgiving.com/info/privacy . For further information on the details Virgin Money Giving may collect from you when using its website please visit
Donations via Facebook
If you make a donation using our Facebook donate button or by creating a Facebook Fundraiser, Facebook will send us information including your first name, surname, donation amount and email address (if it was shared), If you opt to Gift Aid your donation we will also receive your home address so we can claim the Gift Aid.
If your family, friends and supporters make a donation through your Facebook Fundraising page the only information we will receive from Facebook is their first name and surname, unless they choose to Gift Aid their donation in which case we will receive their home address so we can claim Gift Aid.
For further information about the details Facebook Fundraising may collect from you when using its website please visit https://www.facebook.com/help
Personal stories from our patients and supporters are a really powerful way to highlight the work of the charity and the difference people like you can make to the lives of local people affected by cancer.
Some people choose to tell us about their experiences with cancer to help further our work. This may include sharing sensitive information related to their health and family life in addition to their biographical and contact information. We will only ever share a personal story with the explicit consent from the person, people or family involved (parent or guardian if they are under 18).
We will always make the individual(s) fully aware of when and where their story will be used (press, website, social media, newsletters, annual reviews, other marketing materials etc.). We will never pass contact information to anyone outside the charity.
Here we use personal information:
We will contact you occasionally to let you know about some of our latest work, the progress we are making and to ask for donations to help us continue our vital work in Northern Ireland. Here we use personal information to:
We do not sell or share personal details to third parties for the purposes of marketing.
You can change your mind at any time by contacting us at:
Support Services
Friends of the Cancer Centre
Cancer Centre
Belfast City Hospital
Lisburn Road
Belfast Trust
BT9 7AB
You can also call us on 028 9069 9393 or email [email protected]
We will not use your information for marketing purposes if you have asked us not to. However, we will retain your details on our database to help ensure we do not continue to contact you.
Your information is really important to us and we are extremely sensitive and cautious in how we use it. That’s why we promise that we will never sell your information to a 3rd party. We also promise that your information will only ever be shared with our most trusted partners solely for our own charitable purposes.
For example, we occasionally employ external companies to process personal data on our behalf, such as with the distribution of our newsletter. We do comprehensive checks on these companies before we work with them and put a contract in place that sets out our expectations and requirements, especially regarding how they manage the personal data they have access to. They are only permitted to use the data in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other relevant legislation under our strict instructions.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are required to do so through a legal obligation (for example to the police or a government body); to enable us to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or rights under an agreement; or to protect us, for example, in the case of suspected fraud or defamation. We do not share your information for any other purposes.
To help us ensure that any communication you wish to receive from us reaches you, it’s important that all information we hold about you is accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. If any of the information we hold about you is inaccurate and either you advise us or we become otherwise aware, we will ensure it is amended and updated as soon as possible.
If you are aged 16 or under, and would like to participate in an event, make a donation or get involved with us, please make sure that you have your parent/guardian’s permission before giving us your personal information. Some of our events have age restrictions and we recommend that if you are under 16 to please ask a parent or guardian to contact us initially. When we collect information about a child or young person, we will make it clear to the parent/ guardian as to the reasons for collecting this information and how it will be used.
We recognise the importance of protecting our vulnerable supporters and follow the guidance issued by the Institute of Fundraising on treating donors fairly. We believe this helps to support our staff and fundraisers who come into contact with supporters in providing high quality customer care, ensuring anyone donating to the charity is in a position to make a free and informed decision
We will always hold your information securely and follow stringent procedures to ensure that any personal data we hold about you is stored and processed in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and any subsequent, enacting or replacement legislation..
We use a customer relationship management system (CRM) to support our activity. This means that we can keep the information you provide us, so we are able to see the history and relevant details of your relationship with us. This ensures that we provide appropriate and accurate communications. We take information security very seriously. No one is allowed access to our system or files unless they need this in order to provide a service to you or one of the other purpose discussed in this policy.
We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and volunteers.
We will keep your information for as long as required to enable us to operate our services but we will not keep your information for any longer than is necessary. We will take into consideration our legal obligations and tax and accounting rules when determining how long we should retain your information. When we no longer need to retain your information we will ensure it is securely disposed of, at the appropriate time.
Our website is one of the most important tools of our charity as it allows you to find out more about what we do, how your support makes a difference, how you can support us through fundraising and much, much more.
Our website is hosted on a secure server. Any information you send to us over the internet is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). Although we cannot 100 per cent guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, we enforce strict procedures and security features to protect your information and prevent unauthorised access.
To make full use of our website you need to accept cookies. Like most websites, we use “cookies” to help monitor the usage of our website. The information we collect is anonymous and does not personally identify you. It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address.
We also use Google Analytics to track and monitor website usage. This allows us to monitor what parts of our website are working well and what parts of the website our supporters are most interested in. This information then allows us to tailor the content of our website, ensuring our visitors and supporters see more of the content they are interested in. The information we use via Google Analytics is anonymous and does not personally identify you. It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address. If you would rather that your visits to this website are not recorded then please consider looking at Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs.
Our website contains links to other websites belonging to third parties and we participate in social networking sites including but not limited to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. We may also include content from sites such as these on our website however, would advise that we do not have any control the privacy practices of these other sites. You should make sure when you leave our site that you have read and understood that site’s privacy policy in addition to our own.
2. Controlling the information Friends of the Cancer Centre holds about you
We are always very happy to work with you to ensure that you are comfortable with the data we hold and how we use it.
If you would like to control the communications you receive from the charity, you can opt in and opt out from our communications. When you fill in a form (paper or online), make a donation or provide your details, you will see one of more tick boxes asking you to:
If you don’t wish to be contact by us, please tick the boxes as appropriate. If you have agreed that we can use your information but change your mind at a later date, you can update your preferences at any time via one of these methods:
3. Your right to know what information we hold about you
You have the right to:
If you would like to access your information, please do not hesitate to contact us with a description of the information you wish to see. In addition, your request for information should also include:
To ensure safety of your information and to help ensure that we only provide personal data to the right person, we will only accept requests via post (not via email or phone) and will also require proof of identity before releasing such information.
In certain circumstances, you have the ‘Right to be Forgotten’. This means that you can request that Friends of the Cancer Centre removes any and all references to you from our records and systems. We will comply with all such requests in a timely manner, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation, unless other operational or legal obligations require us to retain such data for a particular purpose or period of time.
To request your personal information, please contact us:
Support Services
Friends of the Cancer Centre
Cancer Centre
Belfast City Hospital
Lisburn Road
Belfast Trust BT9 7AB
You should receive the information within one month. If we need more time, we will contact you and tell you when you can expect the information.
Some sensitive information might not be available to members of the public. If this is the case, we will tell you why we have withheld some or all of the information you requested.
We hope that you will not have cause to complain about any aspect of our services. If a problem does arise you are, of course, entitled to complain. If you have any concerns or complaints that cannot be raised with us through the above details, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO),
Their address is as follows:
Information Commissioner’s Office
3rd Floor
14 Cromac Place
Belfast
BT7 2JB
Tel: 028 9027 8757 or 0303 123 1114
Email: [email protected]
All Rights Reserved by Friends of the Cancer Centre.
Friends of the Cancer Centre is a registered company limited by guarantee in Northern Ireland. Company number NI616925. Registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC101345.
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